George W Bush launches himself on the task of reuniting his bitterly divided nation today, naming the first official members of his new Republican administration as he scrambles to get ready to take over the White House from Bill Clinton in just over five weeks' time.

Mr Bush began the daunting job of healing the nation's political wounds when he went before Americans early today for the first time as their official president-elect with a speech laden with good intentions.

He spoke less than an hour after his Democratic opponent, Al Gore, had finally conceded defeat following 36 days of election disputes that have left the US political system bruised and bleeding.

"I was not elected to serve one party but to serve one nation," Mr Bush said in his speech from the Texas House of Representatives in Austin. "The president of the United States is the president of every single American, of every race and every background."

Calling bipartisan cooperation "the challenge of our moment", Mr Bush said he hoped that "the long wait of the last five weeks will heighten a desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past". There was "remarkable consensus about the important issues before us", he said.

"Our nation must rise above a house divided," Mr Bush said. But with Republicans now in control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time since the 1950s, Mr Bush also sketched out the domestic agenda which he now intends to pursue in the hardhat political atmosphere of Washington.

"These priorities are not merely Republican concerns or Democratic concerns, these are American responsibilities," Mr Bush said. "I will give it my all," he promised.

In his own no less minutely scrutinised televised concession speech last night, Mr Gore - standing with his wife, Tipper, four children and running mate, Joe Lieberman - finally said the words that Republicans had ached to hear for so long: "I offer my concession."

Mr Gore telephoned Mr Bush in Austin ahead of his speech - just as he had on November 8. "Just moments ago I spoke with George W Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States. And I promised him I would not call him back this time," he joked.

Mr Gore struck an unambiguously patriotic and conciliatory tone, touched with moments of self-deprecating humour, in a seven-minute address from his White House office in which he called on Americans to "unite behind our next president".

In what must have been a searingly disappointing moment for a man who has yearned for the presidency for much of his adult life, Mr Gore said that "partisan feeling must yield to patriotism" and that America must "heal the wounds".

Mr Gore said he strongly disagreed with the supreme court's decision to throw out his challenge to the election in Florida but said he would accept it. "I accept the finality of this outcome," he said.

In his often graceful and dignified concession, Mr Gore said he did not know what the future held for him. "I don't know the answer to that one yet. I know I'll spend some time in Tennessee and mend some fences, literally and figuratively," he said.

But as he left his office, supporters chanted "Gore for 2004".

Mr Bush, 54, was due to name the first official members of his new Republican administration today but there was little mood of celebration in the almost deserted streets of Austin, Texas.

The Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, said before Bush had voiced his own thoughts: "I am absolutely confident that George W Bush will reach out and bring this country together. He needs to reassure the American people."

The supreme court in effect handed the election to Mr Bush when its conservative majority, headed by the chief justice, William Rehnquist, voted by five votes to four to overturn the verdict of the Florida supreme court. They ordered an end to further counting of the disputed ballots in the state whose 25 electoral college votes will now go to Mr Bush.

The ruling prompted a fierce new debate and there were accusations that the highest court in the land had acted in a partisan way. Mr Rehnquist and fellow judge Clarence Thomas took the unusual step of denying any political motives behind the court's judgment.

One of the dissenting judges, John Paul Stevens, suggested that the real winner of the 2000 election might never be known, adding: "The identity of the loser is perfectly clear - it is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

Mr Bush can now look forward to a 271 to 267 electoral college victory over Mr Gore on December 18. He will be sworn in as the 43rd president of the US next month.

Mr Gore won the national popular vote by 50.2m to 49.8m. That makes Mr Bush the first US president since 1888 to fail to win a popular majority.

Mr Bush is today expected to complete plans to travel with his wife Laura to Washington, perhaps as early as tomorrow.